Nature strikes even indoors – Woman hit by lightning, twice

As she stood next to the register buying milk and cereal, Brooks saw a flash and heard a loud crash.

“But I didn’t realize it was over me,” she said today. “It dimmed my eyes to where they were burning.”

She was struck twice. One witness repeated the mistaken assumption that lightning never strikes the same place twice but it certainly does as the connection from cloud to ground is cleared for the energy to discharge multiple times.

Speculation is that the electrical discharge traveled through the sprinkler system. According to the National Weather Service, indoor wiring and plumbing is a conduit. This is a concerning incident in that we are told to stay inside during a thunderstorm. That’s not good enough when you are vulnerable there as well. But it is better than being outside where your odds of getting hit are greater. Being struck by lightning is FAR more likely than winning the lottery or other such unlikely events, one in about 6000. Dozens of people are killed each year. Sometimes, you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a relief to hear she is OK but she still may possibly suffer residual health issues from the strike.

I never can understand why people thank God to be alive after such an event. If you are a believer, who sent the lightning in the first place?

Maybe you need to qualify that “one in about 6000″ statistic. Guess this is from the same source as Wikipedia, so average chance of a US citizen being struck at any time during their lifetime, based on an 80 year lifespan, right? Suspect it may be lower in the UK, but cannot find any solid figures